Pros
The most toxic workplaces usually have a small pocket of extremely kind and capable people. At CityBase, there are a handful of people who were attracted to the mission, who understand the incredibly hard work it would take to get there, and are both willing and able to do that work. Unfortunately, these are also the ones who burn out the fastest. Any company that moves this quickly is going to have things fall through the cracks. One upside to this (depending on what you like) is that many people have free rein over how - or whether - to do their jobs. This is especially true of management positions.
Cons
Disorganization and mismanagement aren't exactly uncommon in the tech industry, but CityBase brings it to another level. During the hiring process I was told the company hardly qualified as a startup anymore, that things were stabilizing. Instead, things steadily deteriorated during my time there, picking up speed after the acquisition by GTY. Everyday I would hear about the latest client blunders, unannounced and unexplained firings, people working nights and weekends because of a manager's poor communication or outrageous promises to a client; managers literally lying to their direct reports in order to quell complaints, to the point that employees have to verify information with multiple sources; and extremely questionable business practices. While there are some kind, smart, and talented people working here, there's also a [growing] number of people who are not easy to work with, but whose jobs are protected because they are either seen as money-makers and/or because they have built the right alliances with leadership. One employee in a leadership position has a habit of cursing and trash talking other employees or clients ("that guy's an idiot") at their open desk. Another manager who was responsible for several bad hires and a deeply unpopular reorg is being considered for promotion. Silicon Valley's "brilliant jerk" culture is thriving at CityBase - though it's not always clear what these people contribute to the company. I wonder if it was worth losing those who burned out from trying to work with them. Unannounced departures are a recurring theme. From the past year, I count nine off the top of my head. Out of a company of ~80. Half the product team was let go this past summer, with no announcement. And over the past quarter or so, at least three engineers - that I know of - have chosen unemployment over continuing to work here. And engineers are probably the best-treated bunch after Sales. If you are attracted to CityBase because of a desire to do good for government, I'd strongly advise you look elsewhere. There is a thinly veiled lack of respect, even a condescending attitude, for the institution of government. You can hear it in the way some relationship managers talk to city employees - as if they've never used the internet before. You can see it in the contracts we write, which are intentionally vague so that we can come back with some creative definition of "done" when the client complains about our shoddy work. You can see it in the amount of resources invested in selling products and services that don't exist versus building them and making sure they do what the client needs it to do. Part of that is likely due to ignorance of what it takes to build good tech, which isn't any less alarming. The standard seems to be "if it's better than those dinosaur vendors, then sell it". Government suffers from parasitic vendors, tech ignorance, and painful procurement processes, but they have money - and boy does CityBase know it. Leadership likes to talk about helping underserved populations, or in their words, "poor people". Meanwhile, things like the ability to split payments across multiple payment methods - which many low-income people do to manage debt - are "not necessary for the MVP". One of the company's original value props, the ability to make cash payments by kiosk, is no longer offered. Accessibility is a "differentiator", that we address only when a client embarrassingly points out that we are at risk for an ADA lawsuit. The level of priority is abundantly clear, both from the way we talk about underrepresented populations and how we build the tech. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say this place has been traumatic for some employees. All of my coworkers seemed to experience an adverse effect on their personal lives in some way - from losing sleep and getting sick more frequently to missing out on personal plans because of last-minute client visits or because they were simply too burned out to do anything after work.
